SOLITUDE
I bask in lonely nights
With blanket of woven words
And covering of inks
Conjuring lovers in my notes
I knit homes in my heart
For buddies gone with time
Must explain Tilewa’s déjà vu
Years after her journey home
I’m a lone voyager
Practising the art
Of life in the grave
Waiting for death
In the arms of no one
In solitude
I find life
And death
Both at once
MIND CLUTTER
Clustered with bits that are never whole
My heart is a home to all
The red love shaped thing
Where my existence rests
Drew a pact with confusion
Nights are darker, days- dimmer
Silence- heavy
The beats in me are
Like sounds from a mortal
Protesting its first use
After a nuptial night
My head remonstrates- pounding
Maybe hoping for relocation
FOR HIM THAT WE LOVED
For him and we that loved,
Waves came under our feet
And like the sand
Over which it swept
Our hearts became anew
From then on
Endless was it all
Like the sea Shalewa
Wouldn’t let us swim in
FOR HIM WHO NEVER LOVE
He was the only father
I knew
Fathering four plus me
Yet a dad
Never to one.
In his affluence we wallowed
Shrinking into oblivion at his sight
We grew in him
We grew out of him
My sister is an egbere–
The crying spirit of wealth
That holds mat beckoning
To all in her path
He never did rest
Not on her mat anyway
Babatunde Kawthar is an engineering student of the University of Lagos. Her work has been featured in allegro poetry journal. Her interests ranges from poetry to politics among other things.